


don’t you feel me (feel your heart shine)

by LovelyLittleNothing



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I rly had to stop myself from getting into the law of conservation of mass, M/M, POV Outsider, Shyan Exchange 2k19, Soulmates, but only like a lil bit, seers on the otherhand?, soulmates are scientifically accepted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 15:43:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20230327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovelyLittleNothing/pseuds/LovelyLittleNothing
Summary: Prompt: This would be set in canon, but be an AU. So, I'm a huge fan of Kelsey and Curly and love both of their dynamics with the ghoul boys. So, in this AU, one of them is like a seer, but only in regards to soulmates. Soulmates are known in the everyday world but seers that can see who they are? Not so much. They're just a myth. So, what I'm proposing are shenanigans by Curly and Kelsey to get these two together!





	don’t you feel me (feel your heart shine)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cleopatraslibrary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleopatraslibrary/gifts).

Despite the romantic nature of the whole idea, soulmates really were just purely natural, biological phenomena. Science had explained it away decades ago: soulmates were simply the results of atoms being split by the Big Bang, finding their way back together again millions of billions of years later through different states and different forms and connecting people on a molecular level. Drawing them back together against all odds.

After all, what else would explain the way soulmates could feel each others pain even with countries and vast oceans separating them, could sense their anger or fear or worry without speaking to them, could feel their heartbeats syncing up at their first kiss? It was all purely scientific, had had proven data and hard facts to back it up almost to a fault.

Seers, on the other hand, were pure folklore; people who could tell just by looking at others if they were quite literally made for each other or not. People who could see the supernovas within and find their matching pairs. People like Kelsey.

\----

Kelsey laughed from her seat at the bar as she and the rest of the group watched Ryan and Shane bickering. The subject of their contention was whether or not the sound Ryan had captured was indeed a ghost or the sound of a shoe pivoting. They were pressed in close together, though their movements were still grand and over exaggerated, with Shane’s long arms flailing as he argued his points and Ryan miming banging his head against the table in response.

They glowed brighter like this, their matching auras becoming a shining constellation that had Kelsey squinting to see them through, though no one else seemed to have the same problem.

She wondered if they knew, if Ryan and Shane had figured out that they were soulmates and were just keeping their relationship away from the prying eyes of the public. They sure acted like it.

At that moment, someone walked past Ryan, accidentally jostling him and sending his shoulder slamming into the sharp edge of the booth behind him. Ryan barely reacted besides a muttered curse before getting up to replace the beer he had been made to spill. Shane, however, stayed put, rubbing his right shoulder absentmindedly, a confused frown on his face at the sudden pain.

‘_That’s a no, then_,’ Kelsey thought to herself, sighing into her drink and turning back towards her own friends now that the entertainment was gone. Not for the first time she found herself wondering why the Universe couldn’t have gone a little easier on everyone and just tattooed the name of their soulmate onto them instead.

\----

Kelsey truly loved Ryan as a friend. Sure, she had had a little, baby crush on him when they had first met, but come _on_, who wouldn’t? Ryan was sweet, and goofy and incredibly hardworking and dedicated. Not to mention those _arms_. But even back in those early days, before she had met Shane and instantly noticed their matching auras emanating from their cores like their own self-contained galaxies, Kelsey valued him as a friend, first and foremost, someone she could talk to for hours on end without getting bored.

Nowadays? Not so much.

All Ryan seemed to do these days was talk about Shane, which she normally wouldn’t mind if it was cute, sappy soulmate talk but no. Of course Ryan couldn’t even do soulmates right, complaining about every little thing Shane did instead, lightyears away from realizing that spending every little moment talking about someone could be due to something like repressed romantic feelings, _duh Ryan._

“And then- and then he just kept looking at me with that… that stupid face on his...face. Y’know the one where his mouth curls up just a bit at the end and his eyes go small and wrinkled? And-”

Kelsey tuned out his drunken rambling, scanning the room desperately in hopes of finding some way out of having to hear Ryan wax poetic about Shane for the nth time this week.

Her eyes locked with Curly’s at the booth by the bartop where Kelsey and a rambling Ryan remained sitting and she tried to shoot her most distraught look at him, hoping her wide eyes could convey the message.

Well that, and her mouthing the words “_Help me_” while motioning in Ryan’s direction.

Curly, thankfully, just laughed and made his way towards them, laying his hands on Ryan’s shoulders once he was within arms reach.

“Curly! I’m so glad you’re here. I was just telling Kelsey about how Shane kept taking videos of me when I wasn’t looking and pretending not to know what I was talking about after. Right, Kelsey? And Shane would make this little face and-”

“Yes, cariño, you’ve told me all about Shane and his face many, _many_ times. If it annoys you that much, you should take it up with him seeing as he just got here,” Curly told Ryan in a put upon tone, drawing his attention to where Shane was settling into the booth Curly had just vacated.

Ryan immediately perked up, “Yeah, I’ll give that jerk a piece of my mind!”

Curly just laughed in his face and gave him a little pat on his butt, as if to say _away you go, then._

“Curly, thank you so much! I don’t know how much more of this Shane talk I can take. He’s all Ryan ever thinks about anymore,” Kelsey downed the rest of her drink in exasperation as Curly watched on in amusement.

“Tell me about it, girl. The other day he went on and on about how ‘unnecessary’ it was for Shane to have that much leg, like my boy wasn’t being incredibly suspect for thinking about Shane’s legs so much in the first place.”

“I know! Like, I don’t need to be able to See the way they glow around each other to know that they’re soulmates,” Kelsey added, too distracted by her multiple drinks and her newfound opportunity to commiserate with someone about Ryan with to notice her slip up.

“...yeah,” Curly squinted at her, “they’re way too bright, especially when they’re close enough to match up, right?”

Kelsey gasped, eyes going wide as one hand shot out to grab onto Curly’s arm.

“Oh my God, you can see this stuff too?”

Curly smirked triumphantly, “Nope! Sorry for playing you, querida, but I had a sneaking suspicion that you were hiding something and you know this daddy’s always thirsting for people’s secrets.”

Kelsey frowned, taken aback at Curly’s trick. And also at Curly calling himself daddy but. One unsettling revelation at a time.

“But, then how’d you know? Most people don’t even think it’s possible to see other people’s soulmates.”

“My abuela was a Seer too,” Curly shrugged like he wasn’t completely blowing Kelsey’s mind. “Used to tell me and all my siblings about how everyone had a little glow inside them that matched up with that special someone. That they looked like little galaxies and when they were near their soulmate they glowed even brighter, just like what you said.”

“Your… your abuela was like me? There’s others like me?”

Curly’s smiled softened and he bumped his shoulder against Kelsey’s.

“‘Course, girl. You’re never alone in this big ass world. But now that you’ve confirmed what I already thought about Shane and Ryan, how are we gonna get them together and stop Ryan’s pining once and for all?”

Kelsey smiled widely at Curly, a plan already beginning to take root in her mind.

\----

Kelsey waited until she saw both Ryan and Shane head to the kitchen for a midday coffee before she made her move.

Waiting a few minutes so as not to look too suspicious she headed in the same direction, shooting Curly a discreet thumbs up on her way and smiling when he playfully rolled his eyes at her in response.

Kelsey smiled at the two in greeting, inwardly cheering as she saw Shane add more hot water to his half full tea. _Perfect_.

“Shane,” she called, watching as he picked up his mug and blew on it lightly. The hot water mixed with the previous cooler water already in the mug, ensuring that it was warm without being scalding. “Do you mind grabbing my mug for me? I think someone moved it up there by mistake.”

“Sure, Kels. We all know that's what the ol’ Buzzfeed is keeping me around for anyways,” Shane joked, bringing his mug with him as he walked the few feet over towards the cabinets.

He set his tea on the counter in front of him and Kelsey smiled in thanks as she nervously waited for the right moment. Shane reached his arm up, barely needing to extend it all the way to grab the mug.

  
  


She gave him her sunniest smile, thanked him and held out her hand to take the mug from him. Shane had just moved to hand her the mug when Kelsey struck.

She knocked his tea off the counter and straight onto his thigh.

Shane flinched and from the corner of her eye she saw Ryan mimic the motion where he leant against the wall scrolling through his phone, too preoccupied with whatever he was looking at, however, to notice that his and Shane’s reactions to the pain had synced up.

_Well, that wouldn’t do._

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Shane! I don’t know what’s gotten into me today! Let me help you clean this up.”

“It’s alright. Wasn’t too hot thankfully,” Shane replied through a thin smile. Briefly Kelsey felt guilt wash through her for purposefully dumping hot tea all over one of her co-workers but she pushed it to the back of her mind. This was for the sake of getting two soulmates together. And more importantly, to give Kelsey and Curly some peace and quiet.

Kelsey sucked her teeth, giving a smile that she hoped came off as equal parts sympathetic and apologetic, “That must hurt. What about you, Ry? You mind giving me a hand cleaning this up?”

Ryan looked over, startled from his position where he was lightly shaking out his leg.

“Yeah, just give me a sec. I think my leg fell asleep or something, it feels weird.”

“Hmm, isn’t that odd--” Kelsey said, trying to catch Shane’s eye to share a look with him but his focus was almost entirely on Ryan already.

“What did I tell you, sitting at your desk for hours without moving, muttering to yourself isn’t good for your body, no matter how little there is of it.”

“You really had to go in with a short joke, huh? At least I don’t look like I pissed myself in the middle of the office!”

Kelsey groaned. Ryan and Shane were back to bickering, nowhere near any closer to figuring things out and Kelsey had to clean the mess up herself.

\---

The next day was Curly’s turn to try to clue the two idiots onto the whole pain-sharing-soulmates thing they had going on and he decided not to overthink it as Kelsey had done. Afterall, look how that turned out.

Instead he just walked right up to Ryan where he sat next to Shane and pinched his cheeks. Hard.

“Ow, Curly! What the hell was that for?” Ryan rubbed his cheek with one hand and used the other to bat away Curly’s second attempt at pinching him.

“Nothing, my little angel baby face, you just looked so focused I had to come over here and stop you from being so boring.”

Curly chanced a glance over his shoulder from where he was hunched over Ryan to see if Shane had reacted to the pinch at all and was unsettled to find Shane glaring at his hands on Ryan’s face as if he could remove them from sheer force of will.

“You okay over there, Shane?” Curly needled, hoping to get him to admit to feeling the pinch too.

Shane just breathed out slowly through his nose, carefully unwinding his fingers from where he had them wrapped around his desk chair in a white knuckled grip and shot Curly the fakest smile in Buzzfeed history. And knowing Buzzfeeds penchant for less than authentic content, that was saying something.

“Just. Peachy.”

So, Shane had reacted to Curly’s little display, just not how Curly thought he would. He took in Ryan’s oblivious attitude and Shane’s still tense posture.

Maybe he could work with this.

\---

Kelsey’s following attempt was a bit much, true, but this was coming from the girl who was currently trying to have a hundred babies on her own, so she was no stranger to the phrase ‘go big or go home’. The babies belonged in a Sims game but still, the sentiment remained. She was gonna do it this time.

Her grand plan: a Buzzfeed video entitled “Coworkers Test If They’re Soulmate Compatible”

There was no way for them to weasel out of her grip this time. She would get them to admit their damn feelings, if it killed her because the alternative of listening to Ryan aggressively pine in his own backhanded way certainly would do the job instead.

(No matter how many times she and Curly complained and said it was for their own personal gain, though, neither of them truly cared about the pining. Sure, it could get old hearing Ryan ‘complain’ about Shane but the real reason they were doing this was the two dopey men sitting in front of them, laughing hysterically at some joke undoubtedly encased in so many inside stories and obscure references that it would be incomprehensible to any one but them two.

Kelsey and Curly shared a look, watching as Shane stared openly at Ryan, enraptured with the way he laughed with his whole body. They seemed to come to a mutual decision as Ryan leaned against Shane, looking up at him with soft eyes just as the taller man looked away. )

Kelsey and Curly shut down the shoot without having to talk about it.

Being forced to turn what should be an intimate moment between two people into content for millions to gossip over isn’t what Shane and Ryan deserved and Kelsey felt guilty that she had almost subjected them to that.

Guilty, but not any less convinced that all Shane and Ryan needed was a push in the right direction to get the intimate confession that they deserved.

\--

They try everything.

Curly ‘accidentally’ steps on Ryan’s foot while having a conversation but his dumb Ghoul Stomping boots are too thick for him to feel it through.

Kelsey volunteers Shane for a video on people facing common fears in hopes that Ryan could feel some of Shane’s residual fear but it turns out that Ryan wasn’t exaggerating about Shane not feeling fear like a normal person.

Kelsey and Curly even contemplate asking both Ryan and Shane separately to get them something from the storage closet and locking them in before realizing that that was just a little insane and a lot likely to get them in trouble with HR.

Frustrated, Kelsey decides it's time to get a little more direct. 

\---

“Ryan, ¡qué hermoso! Don’t you look like a meal today!”

Ryan looks down at his tank top and ripped jeans slowly, before shooting Curly a suspicious look.

“What do you want, Curly?”

Curly just laughs and places a hand lightly on Ryan’s bicep. From the corner of his eye he notices Shane stiffen, his gaze flitting from the hand to Curly’s face and back again. Perfect.

“Hmm. Well, isn’t that a loaded question,” Curly says, purposefully letting his voice drop into something more suggestive, turning on the charm like he would if Ryan was any other man he’d found at the bar.

The problem is, Ryan isn’t some random man from a bar. Ryan had been one of Curly’s first friends at Buzzfeed and know’s Curly would never seriously come onto him. He’s getting suspicious and that just wouldn’t do. Curly locks eyes with Kelsey to let her know it's her time to shine.

“Hey, Shane!” She chirps sunnily, turning her head to greet Curly and Ryan and pretending to be surprised by the sight of them standing so close, “woah, hey to you guys, too. You got enough breathing room over there? You look like you’re about the swallow Ryan whole, Curly.”

Curly smirks. Him and Ryan are actually leaving a whole lot of room for Jesus but from what he’d seen before it didn’t take a lot for Shane to get jealous. Someone else implying that things aren’t quite PG would hopefully add fuel to that fire.

“Wouldn’t mind that at all, Kels. What do you say, hermoso, me and you later and a little swallowing action?” Curly even throws in a wink just to be an asshole.

“O-kayy, you are definitely up to something, we both know you would never date me. You’ve said so yourse-“

Kelsey rushes to talk over Ryan, leaning in close to Shane and cooing, “Aw, how cute! Do you think they could be soulmates?”

Shane is on his feet in a heartbeat, storming out of the office so quick Kelsey barely has time to register what just happened.

Ryan goes from confused to worried to pissed off, the last one definitely aimed at her and Curly.

“What the fuck was that?” Ryan demands in a low tone.

Kelsey’s never heard him like this before, not even the time that intern had accidentally stepped on one of his new Jordans. Even Curly flinches with the intensity of Ryan’s anger.

“It was just a bit of joking, Ryan. You know I never hit on you seriously,” Curly tried but Ryan was having none of it.

“No, you guys have been up to something for the past couple weeks. And what was all that soulmate talk about,” Ryan turned on her, “you know how I feel about him. Why would you even say that?”

Kelsey could feel regret clawing up her chest as she thought of how that must have sounded like to Ryan, as if they were reminding him of what he thought was a futile crush on Shane.

“Ryan, I’m so sorry. We were just trying to get you guys to realize that you’re obviously soulmates-“

“Stop it, Kelsey. Me and Shane, we’re not...he doesn’t think of me that way.”

“Ry…” Curly lifted a hand to comfort him but Ryan brushed it off, still agitated and upset.

“You don’t know that, Ryan!”

Ryan scoffed, “What? And you do?”

Kelsey bit her lip, unsure if she should say anything and if Ryan would even believe her if she did. She knew his whole shtick was believing but this wasn’t something she could easily prove and if Ryan thought she was just making it up to save their asses he would just be more hurt.

“That’s what I thought,” Ryan said bitterly, taking her silence as defeat, “just...leave me alone.”

Kelsey made to apologize again and try to convince him but Curly just shook his head, knowing that Ryan needed time on his own when he got upset like this.

“We fucked up, bad, huh?” Kelsey asked as they walked towards the break room.

Curly nodded sadly at her and wrapped an arm around he shoulders, squeezing her into a sideways hug.

“We did. We should definitely try apologizing to them both tomorrow but for now, I think its best if we let sleeping dogs lie.”

“You’re right, I-“

“Kelsey,” Shane interrupts her, looking up from where he was seated on the break room couch, morosely staring at his phone.

He look haggard and Kelsey’s heart clenches at having unintentionally being the cause of it. How had wanting to play matchmaker gone so wrong?

“Can I, uh, speak to you? Privately?” Shane asks not unkindly, looking at Curly with more uncertainty than malice.

“Sure, um,” Curly gives them both small smiles and saunters out of the room as Kelsey takes her place on the couch with Shane, “what did you want to-“

“Curly and Ryan… are they… do you,” Shane steels himself, “do you really think they could be soulmates?”

“I- I’m not,” Kelsey isn’t sure how to answer at first, especially not without exposing herself but one look at Shane’s distraught face makes up her mind, “no, Shane. I know his soulmate’s you.”

Shane leans back as though he were hit and his usually calm facade is an interwoven mix of shock, disbelief and the smallest sliver of hope.

“You can’t possibly know that.”

“Yes, yes I can Shane. You just have to take my word for it.”

“I-“ Shane begins, sounding rattled before taking a deep breath, “I believe you.”

—-

Shane strides through the office, weaving through desks with an air of determination that only falters slightly once he reaches his and Ryan’s shared desk space.

“Ryan,” Shane says softly, though Ryan still startles harshly from where he had been blankly staring at his computer screen.

“Shane,” Ryan breathes out tentatively, hope coating his tone.

“Come with me to the Ghoul Boys HQ? I need to ask you something.”

“W-what do you need to ask me?” Ryan asks, mind going into overdrive, anxiously combing over all the possible reasons why Shane would need to ask him something in private.

“Please, Ry. Just come with me,” Shane pleads and Ryan was up in a heartbeat. He was only human after all.

Ryan followed Shane to their set in silence.

He had just closed the door behind them when Shane appeared in front of him, leaving a whisper of space between them.

“Shane?”

“You know how I said I never feel scared on location?” Shane asked quietly, right hand coming up to rest on Ryan’s cheek lightly. Ryan leaned into the touch slightly, still confused as to what was going on.

“Well, I lied. I’m always scared for you. It always sounds like your little heart is about to jackrabbit out of your chest. And not just that it- it feels like. When I’m close to you it feels like

I can fear your feel pouring out of you.

And when we leave I feel such a rush of relief, which doesn’t make sense because those places are never that bad for anything but my lower back, but I feel it all the same.”

Shane smiled softly, “And when I hear you laugh or see your little perfect smile it, God it lights me up inside and makes me want to laugh and smile right alongside you. Like, if you’re happy then of course I should be, too.

And that might be because we’re soulmates or it might not. I don’t know. But what I do know is that making you happy makes me happy and it might be a little selfish of me but I want to make you happy for the rest of my life. Because… because I love you, Ryan Bergara.”

“Shane, I,” Ryan started but he was at a loss for words, completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of emotions he was feeling and the emotions he wasn’t feeling himself but was still experiencing anyways. “We are such idiots.”

Shane smiled at him, opening his mouth to respond but Ryan was already moving in, pressing himself to the tips of his toes at the same time he dragged Shane down and slotted their lips together.

It was perfect, it was messy and slightly awkward as Shane had been mid-speech when Ryan had pulled him in but with Ryan’s hand on Shane’s chest he felt Shane’s heart skip a beat all the same. He didn’t need the hand to tell though, because his heart had skipped the same beat, too.

**Author's Note:**

> @cleopatraslibrary I am so so s o sorry that this is incredibly late but I hope this came out to your liking! 
> 
> The idea for this type of soulmate came partially from the prompt and partially from this tumblr post about soulmates being from atoms split at the big bang. While looking for this post i found an actual article proposing the same thing and I laughed my little head off about it. If u wanna read it heres the link: http://chicagotj.blogspot.com/2016/08/soulmates-may-exist-after-all-according.html (still dk how to embed links woops!)
> 
> Title from the song Kinda Bonkers by Animal Collective
> 
> Come say hi or drop a prompt at my tumblr @boogariac !


End file.
